It's not all grey skies for the University of the Sunshine Coast, despite suffering, along with the rest of the nation’s public universities, as $263 million was slashed from the Sustainable Research Excellence program.Iain Curry

COAST BUDGET VIEW: Upbeat USC rolls with funding blows

IT'S not all grey skies for the University of the Sunshine Coast, despite suffering, along with the rest of the nation's public universities, as $263 million was slashed from the Sustainable Research Excellence program.

The program, introduced by then-Rudd Government, was designed to cover the indirect costs associated with research programs in universities.

While USC will feel the pinch to some degree as a result of the cuts, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor Roland De Marco said there were still positives that came from the Budget, including promises to fund research infrastructure, a move that would benefit USC scholars, Prof De Marco said.

"The cut is $263 million over the next four years, which is about 30%, so it's quite a substantial cut," he said.

"Across the university sector it's going to have quite a substantial impact.

"But the commitment to the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy... that's a positive because we're rapidly growing our research at USC."

The further $150 million commitment to the NCRIS will enable USC to further enhance their developing research sector, aided further by $13 million granted for the Australian Synchrotron, based in Melbourne, the largest piece of research infrastructure in the nation, and a place where USC researchers were getting more opportunities to work.

"It (research funding) provides Australian and USC researchers access to cutting-edge facilities that allow us to push the envelope and do some really cutting-edge research," Prof De Marco said.

Prof De Marco was also hopeful there would be a continuation of the Future Fellowship Scheme, as he said it had been crucial to helping develop future academics, providing them mid-career opportunities.

He said if the potential extra round of 100 fellowships went ahead, USC was quietly confident of securing at least a few of those fellowships.

As for the controversial plans to deregulate university fees, while there were no major announcements made in relation to the issue on Tuesday night, or incentives for the Senate to pass the polarising proposal, savings assumed from deregulation in the previous Budget remained.

Meanwhile Universities Australia expressed its disappointment at the $5 million cut to the Higher Education Participation Program, lamenting the further difficulties it would place on disadvantaged students, while also reaffirming opposition to deregulation plans.

Prof De Marco also pointed to $10 million allocated for medical research in the budget as another potential win for USC, as the development of the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital would also carry with it opportunities to increase medical research projects on the Coast.